What Caught My Eye Today

Turkey - Turkey said it inflicted heavy casualties on Kurdish rebels in northern Iraq in an "intense intervention" involving helicopters, artillery and a cross-border raid by special forces. A military official said around 100 special forces crossed into Iraqi territory to hit the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), a day after Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan announced the cabinet had given a green light to such operations. Turkey has made many threats of military action but, under heavy U.S. pressure, has so far shown restraint. Washington fears a large-scale operation could wreak havoc in the most stable part of Iraq and possibly the wider region. Turkey's parliament approved a resolution on October 17 giving the government the legal basis to order cross-border military operations if and when it deemed them necessary. The Turkish government blames PKK for the deaths of nearly 40,000 people since the group began its armed separatist insurgency in 1984. Both the European Union and the United States list the PKK as a terrorist organization. The thing I don't get is that the U.S. claims that this region is one of the few success stories in Iraq and that Kurdistan is relatively peace compared to the rest of the country. Maybe that's because instead of attacking fellow Iraqis or the U.S. military, the Kurds are directing all their efforts at Turkey.

2008 Presidential Campaign - Democratic presidential front-runner Hillary Clinton was impressive in the cool way she handled the drama of a man seizing hostages at one of her campaign offices, some voters and analysts said. Political science analysts say Clinton did the right thing by going into "crisis" mode as soon as news broke about the man taking the people hostage and claiming to have a bomb. She canceled her schedule and was available by phone to help police as they negotiated with the man, Leeland Eisenberg, for several hours. After the incident ended with no injuries and Eisenberg under arrest, Clinton flew to New Hampshire and thanked police for their efforts to keep the hostages safe. In New Hampshire, where there is a primary election on January 8, Clinton is ahead with a substantial but shrinking lead. Some residents said they were impressed by her reaction to the hostage drama but that it would not sway their votes. Well sure, I suppose this thing could have ended up being a public relations nightmare for Senator Clinton, but isn't it in rather poor taste to look at this event in terms of political gain or loss? Lives could have been lost. Frankly, I thought her reactions were entirely appropriate given the circumstances, but one would hope that any Presidential candidate in the same situation would have done the same thing.

Russia - Russian President Vladimir Putin accused the U.S. government of deliberately trying to undermine the upcoming Russian parliamentary elections, and warned that Russia was building up its military so that 'no one puts his runny nose into our affairs.' ('runny nose'? I'm sure it sounds alot better in Russian) His remarks came after the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) would not even try to verify the fairness of the Russian elections. The organization said the Russian government made it so difficult for its 70 observers to monitor the voting that it could not provide assurances that the election was fair. So many conspiracy theories to choose from. Let's see...

- Theory #1: Putin is right. The U.S. government tries to discredit the election by pulling out the election monitors who--if the Russian people actually support Putin--would validate Putin's claims. Possible, I suppose. I'm sure we've done worse.

- Theory #2: The OSCE is right. Putin is actually squelching his competition and in accusing the U.S. of interfering in the Russian election he is trying to deflect attention from his suppression of opposition parties. Certainly plausible from what I've seen.

India - Finally a story that doesn't involve the monkey epidemic... For month the city of Ghaziabad, India was a mess. Municipal contractors weren't being paid, officials were demanding bribes, and services weren't being delivered. So when the city got a new municipal commissioner, he legalized bribery. Today, contractors pay the municipality 15% of what the receive for a job, and the money is funneled back into city projects. In just 3 months, the approach has netted $4.7 million that would have gone into corrupt pockets. Dude, is this guy awesome or what? He'd do well over here except for the fact that our politicians don't publicly condone corruption...they prefer to engage in it behind closed doors.

Kenya - Yet another story from the 'So Bizarre It Must Be True' file... Older white women have begun traveling to Kenya to have flings with younger Kenyan men. Locals who live near coastal resorts estimate about 20% of female tourists in their 50s and 60s are trawling for sex, offering to buy young men clothing and meals in return for their services and company. Clearly, girl power has arrive in this neck of the woods. To those intrepid women I say this--You go girls! To those of you who frown upon such behavior I say this--How long have men engaged in these sorts of arrangements with their younger female counterparts?